THE KINGDOM AND THE WORK OF GOD.
(picked phrases from Pr. Marcos Nascimento's sermon)
09-28-25 Morning worship at Agape Missional Christian Church, SP, BR
THE KINGDOM AND THE WORK OF GOD.
The difference throughout the Kingdom of God and the Work of God.
Mathew 6:6 – But when you pray, go into your private room, and, closing the door, pray to your Father, who is in secret; and your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you in the open.
Brazil was the nation that has sent the most missionaries to the world. We had a lot of missionaries in various countries, and they lived in poor situations, almost without resources, but they went abroad to these nations because they didn't have their life as precious; instead, they were putting God's work in first place.
In the old days, our children desired to go to Mission Camp, we could see it because when we preached about bringing souls to the Kingdom, and we asked if someone desired to go abroad, our youngers raised their hands with thirst to go and preach the gospel.
But nowadays, we can't see it anymore.
Here, today, we have more than 170 people, our seats are busy, there are no seats free, and some of us are standing up because there are no chairs. Then, we see many people in the church, why do we need to preach out of church? Why? If we even have not seats to bring more people!
Is it true? Is the view of Kingdom not needed anymore?
Is the Church worried more about training and empowering people to work in the Kingdom than to preach and bringing people to the Kingdom?
We have done it. We have empowered and trained people to work until these people are spent and tired, and they are not in conditions to work, so we raise another and start again and again.
You know, we are worried only about preparing people to work in the Kingdom, but we are forgetting the meaning, purpose, which is to win people over, to evangelize people to the Kingdom.
What is the vision nowadays to evaluate churches? Churches are evaluated by the number of members they administer; they are evaluated by the amount they collect, and they are evaluated by the possessions they have. Money is power, and money moves power.
But it is not the God's Kingdom. What are you seeing inside your church? What is the vision?
The devil has changed the essence of the church from Go to the needed people, to Go to powerful people who can bring more with them. We are going apart from those who really need to be free of suffering and coming closest to able to work people, we are thinking about people to work in the kingdom instead of people who need the kingdom.
This word today is a warning about the dangerous thinking about working and being always prepared and about being capable inside the church. We need to look for ways to serve and preach the truth of the gospel which is the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God is not visible, or tangible, it is not material. But the God's Kingdom is Peace and Justice and Love.
I John 5 says that everyone who loves God loves Jesus as well and keeps his commandments.
Matthew 16:24 says “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
If you decide to follow Jesus, there will be suffering also, and you need to know it. The delusion of no suffering because you are in the Kingdom is not real, we are in the world and here there will be suffering, but we have the hope we will live with him at the end.
We are compelled by this love and grace, by this grace. We feel gratitude for all of this.
This gratitude is what moves the work of God. Gratitude and not a position.
Yes, we need a place to gather, and this place needs to be structured, and it means that there will be a work to do, people able to do the work, musicians, chairs, and furniture and all of this around. We see, because, only because of this, we will need money to do the work of God. But we need to understand that there is a balance between them: The Kingdom and the Work.
We are not here because of the Work but because the Kingdom of God. We don't belong to this World; we are citizens of Heaven.
Let’s promote the kingdom, go out of our comfort and commodity and look for a way to be helpers and servers of the Kingdom.
We are not better than anyone, and we are not thinking we are at the best position in this context but, the most important here is to be aware of what is our place in the Kingdom of God.
We are not a model of church which is not worried about the Kingdom of God.
Pray for it. Pray asking God to show you more about it.
Amen!
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